" in 2010 the speakers went back on, not long after the North Koreans had sunk a South Korean submarine, killing forty-six of its crew." This is not correct. On March 26, 2010 the North Koreans sank the South Korean corvette, ROKS Cheonan, with a torpedo fired from a North Korean midget submarine. 46 of the 104 crew on the Cheonan died in the incident. A North Korean defector reported that the North Korean midget sub crew was awarded "Hero of the DPRK" for the sinking of the South Korean ship.

AlexG55
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2014-07-08T15:54:06Z —
#4

My favourite example of large-scale deception was the double bluff that I've heard took place in towns in Northern Ireland close to the border with the Republic. During WW2, the people in some of these towns deliberately left their lights on at night rather than obeying the blackout order, the idea being that German bomber crews would think that if they had the lights on they must be in the (neutral) Republic, where there was no blackout.

atl
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2014-07-08T16:25:06Z —
#5

I took the tour of the DMZ and went right past this place (well, as "right past" as you could be while still being in South Korea). It's a tour well worth taking if you have the time and, I note, I took the tour during the week when the South Koreans were in the process of raising ROKS Cheonan, so things were pretty tense. I happily claim North Korea on my list of countries visited, even if it was only for about 5 minutes and the first 30' feet of the country.

vonbobo
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2014-07-08T16:31:02Z —
#6

cool article, lots of great image and map searches to be had in there. My favorite is the Bulgaria’s Buzludzha Monument, never seen that before!

kaleberg7
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2014-07-08T16:50:24Z —
#7

Are we looking at the future of London?

Boundegar
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2014-07-08T17:22:12Z —
#8

"Peace village," as in, "rest in peace."

chellberty
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2014-07-08T18:00:06Z —
#9

Vice documentary this is...

DevinC
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2014-07-08T18:03:57Z —
#10

A nearby 525-foot North Korean flagpole, erected in retaliation for South Korea’s putting up a 323-foot flagpole in Daeseong-dong, was, for a while, the world’s tallest. Yet Kijong-dong remains a potent and, until recently, noisy symbol.

I can read this with a straight face, but it does take some effort.

Brainspore
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2014-07-08T18:09:26Z —
#11

What sick reasoning is keeping North Korea from just allowing actual people to live there?

Drew_G
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2014-07-08T19:17:36Z —
#12

The fact that if they have people living there, it'll be obvious the village isn't as nice as it looks, since the people would likely, like most North Koreans who live outside Pyongyang, not get enough of...pretty much everything.

Plus it's close to the border and therefore a potential defection site.

heckblazer
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2014-07-08T19:20:05Z —
#13

As previously covered on Boing Boing, the camouflage fake towns built over WWII aircraft factories deserves an honorable mention I think.

yancey_anderson
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2014-07-08T21:14:58Z —
#14

I was stationed in Seoul the first time in 1987. My first visit up to the DMZ for a story, at about dusk, all the lights came on at the same time. It was a pretty amusing sight. Not sure if it even lights up anymore. Last time I saw the place was in 96.

simonize
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2014-07-09T00:41:03Z —
#15

On the one hand, it's looks fairly close to the Kaesong Industrial park, where the Norks provide cheap labor to Southern companies. On the other hand, if the main point of the place is to look pretty from the outside, I can imagine that they would have the HOA from HELL. "Wrong color curtains? That's three years in a reeducation through labor camp."

EcholocateChoco
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2014-07-09T00:51:41Z —
#16

For one thing, the buildings are hollow shells. It would be like living in a movie set.

botness
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2014-07-09T01:51:33Z —
#17

Mr. Bonnett should refrain from making glib statements of fact when there is significant dispute. Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROKS_Cheonan_sinking#South_Korea_skepticism and see if the word "alleged" needs to be inserted here, especially since North Korea denies having any part in this. This explains why North Korea abandoned the moratorium on psychological warfare, in protest.

Bobo
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2014-07-09T03:36:21Z —
#18

You know, if you have to keep erecting progressively larger whatever-dongs to impress the guy next door....

botness
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2014-07-09T03:45:46Z —
#19

[The Juche Tower] looks down at military parades during which fake missiles are trundled out for the benefit of an admiring world.

...paraded across a part of the capitol that best represents this brand of creativity, with all the best Disney Imagineering techniques! Not enough room for a massive Tiananmen-size Square? Use forced perspective, and a 16-lane highway that goes nowhere!